>> mitt romney found himself in a peculiar position. the mandate emerged from conservative republican circles in the late 1980's and early 1990's and gained prominence as an alternative to the clinton health reform vision in 1993- 1994. republicans kept beating the drum for years. mitt romney mistakenly thought they meant it and were serious. so he took their idea and actually worked to and helped to actualize it in massachusetts as part of the massachusetts health reform law. then when they attempted to do it on a national basis through the democrats' health-care initiative, all the republicans who said they wereor this deserted the ship, jumped off the ship. but romney could not because he was pictured holding the steering wheel with ted kennedy when they made it happen. he finds himself in an ironic situation in terms of supporting something that was very much a republican orthodoxy and then watched all the republicans abandoned it. the truth is, romney had a very minimalist vision of what massachusetts health reform would be. it was